☆ Past MV mayor: SJ's gutting of Prop 13 an “overt” push for Big Government
Image by Jeremy Keith
Local Libertarian John Inks—formerly Mountain View mayor and two-term councilmember—breaks down San Jose's brash support of ACA 1. Inks predicts a wave of costly housing-related taxes moving forward, and wonders why SJ gov't isn't stepping up better to protect residents' voices. An Opp Now exclusive.
ACA 1 is a direct assault on Proposition 13, through elimination of the protective two-thirds voter approval requirement that shields us from costly new taxes on homes and businesses.
The reason San Jose has endorsed ACA 1 is that the so-called representatives Silicon Valley voters have elected to their council are pushers of Big Government and ever impracticable central planning reminiscent of Marx, instead of what they should be: guardians of individual rights. It’s unfortunate that Johnny Khamis is no longer there to push back on this current crew.
When city councils let it slip that they no longer have taxpayers’ interests at heart, as with San Jose's and my own Mountain View councils’ flagrant choices to officially oppose 2024’s Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act (which would elevate and restore the people’s voice—rather than politicians’—on statewide tax increases), citizens must fight back on all fronts.
The easiest first step is to cast votes for the most libertarian candidates and ballot measures possible, meaning those that promote dramatic reductions in the size of government and expansions of individual freedom. If housing supply is your concern, for example, understand that taxes, fees, and regulations shrink the housing supply and raise its cost, then choose the candidate who most closely subscribes to this guiding principle: “That government is best which governs least.”
People with political power have a general tendency to tax and regulate (control). In the case of San Jose, they're being quite overt about it!
John Inks is former mayor and two-term councilmember of Mountain View and a life member of the Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County.
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